Rhino Boys

Rhox Gangster

28mm scale

"Can I go in?"
"Are you on the list?"
"Not... technically."
"If you're not on the list, then you can't go in. Now, shove off!"

This rhino man puts his muscle to work as a gangsters' thug, guarding, fighting, or intimidating as the need arises...

Rhox lawyer

28mm scale

Single rhino lawyer
Filing an objection
Up at night and reading law
For his clients' protection

Single rhino lawyer
Working pro bono cases
Got some brand new evidence
So back to court he races!
(w. apologies to Futurama)

... While his law-abiding brother argues in court.  His clients may be guilty, innocent, or something in between, but either way he'll make sure they receive the toughest defense he can muster.

This pair of thick-headed fantasy figures are a set from Magic the Gathering.

Champion of Rot

Smegatron the Pallid

28mm scale

Once his armor was gleaming and white, now a mass of scraping rust and foul suppurations. On the battlefield he swings a deadly flail, its spiked heads spewing contagious vapors even as they crush his enemies. One chain has snapped, but a helpful Nurgling has leapt up to take its place...

I popped into my local game store a while back and there was, by Father Nurgle's poxy benevolent hand, a single Series 3 Space Marine Heroes box left there.  So I bought it.  GW blind-boxing these is cynical bullsh*t, but I will not lie, the model is a good one.  It avoids most of the problems with plastic sprue figures, and its icky, Nurgley design is uncompromising.  I love it!

"Scabboth".  I chose the other head option and it's definitely better.

15mm terrain goodies

Shipping containers

 

My Instagram buddy @winnipegmichael generously sent me a bunch of nice corrugated craft paper, so naturally the first thing I made with it was that classic terrain piece, intermodal cargo containers.  If you own something manufactured, there's a good chance it once traveled in one of these...

I tried to make them look used but not totally abused.  The graffiti was fun, I did some of it with my child's Posca paint markers.

Wind turbine and solar unit

These two pieces were surprisingly easy for how good they came out looking. They're made from cardstock, corrugated paper, printed papercraft designs, and some toy parts.  The techy turbine blades are from a Kinder egg toy; there's a bit of Lego in there too.

Fearless Vampire Hunter

Stake-Wielding Friar

28mm

The peasants come to his door, telling tales of a fiend risen from the dead to drink blood.  Christian and pagan alike bolt their doors and tremble in the night.  So the friar does the only thing he can do: finds a mallet and sharpens a wooden stake, and ventures forth to destroy the creature, protected only by his faith... and the largest silver cross he can find, hung around his neck.  Finding the vampire's crypt, he impales it through the heart and stuffs a consecrated wafer into its mouth.  "By the body of Christ I send you back to hell, unholy abomination!  Prey upon my flock no more! Domine deus, libera nos a malo!
Amen!"  With a hideous screech, the bloodsucking demon withers and disintegrates into stinking dust...

The Friar is a Midlam Miniatures figure.

Oldhammer deep dives

Ogron Foulbreath

35mm

I could not tell what or who was behind the giant helm: man, orc, ogre, or fell thing; alive or undead...  but every warrior's instinct told me to fall back, that to fight it head-on would only be madness and death.

This is "Ogron Foulbreath, orc champion" from Citadel's 1983 catalogue.  A battered old lead figure I got in a trade years ago; I always wondered where it was from.  I always thought his crested helmet and shield designs were really cool.  IMO he makes a better Chaos warrior than an orc.

Salamanders Techmarine

28mm

Yours is to heed the machine as others heed their kin. Tend to the war spirits all about, but do so in the knowledge that you do the Emperor’s duty. Without your ministrations, no bolt may be fired, and no enemy slain.

Another old Citadel/GW figure, though not quite as vintage!  This Techmarine was one of a group of (in my opinion) really great sculpts that appeared in the 1988+ catalogues.  They're simpler and have more character than the overdone modern ones.  I have a couple more of these squirreled away from when I could afford to splurge on eBay:

 

I painted this in Salamanders colours, with Adeptus Mechanicus red on only part of the armour.  The fluff says that Techmarines are sometimes viewed with suspicion by other Marines due to their divided loyalties.  I wanted this one to be trying to acknowledge this while reassuring his brothers he was a Salamander first and foremost.

The Alien With No Name

Kisathi Gunslinger

28mm

"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

 

A dusty town... who is this blue-skinned humanoid facing down a notorious bandit, his gun hands twitching?  Nobody knows him... is he a grim heroic figure protecting the innocent from cruelty?  Or just another bounty hunter mercilessly taking down his target?

I recently entered this figure in a painting contest at my local game store, The Dragon.  It didn't win, but I did have a lot of fun conceptualizing the character of an alien spaghetti Western gunfighter and capturing the look I wanted.

His poncho is a piece of "Kimwipes" brand lint-free tissue soaked in PVA glue and paint, and carefully draped over the already-basecoated and shaded figure.  I had to paint over it one it was dry, but pre-tinting it saved a lot of work.  In the end, I think I created a nicely Clint Eastwood "Blondie"-like character...

Dare to be Punk

"Maggie, You ****"

28mm

Twenty five quid to live on
Seven days a week to survive
Five and twenty pictures of the queen
You won't see the starvation in her eyes
Twenty five quid to dish out
And you're already ten in debt
So with fifteen singles left over
The landlord gets the rent

Maggie, Maggie you c*** Maggie, Maggie you c*** Maggie
Maggie you c*** Maggie Maggie Maggie Maggie you fucking c***

- The Exploited, "Maggie" 

This is my entry for the Instagram "Punk Dare" contest run by Dark Elf Erin.  I envisioned a Britain where the Falklands war dragged on, depressing the economy to desperate lengths, and where the 1984 attack by the IRA succeeded in wiping out most of the British Cabinet.  In response, Margaret Thatcher institutes emergency measures and turns Britain into a real police state.  But some people still resist...

 I tried to load this figure up with old-school punk style: red Royal Stewart plaid, ripped fishnets, and a bold mohawk... contrasted with the totalitarian propaganda posters plastered over old punk material on the wall behind her (and already torn down and defaced).

I also decorated the back of the piece, with some fun old punk show posters:

Check out all the superb contest entries here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/punkdareentry/